April 28th, 2009

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

The world’s shark population is dropping rapidly, and the primary reasons are humans’ increasing hunger for both a Chinese delicacy and an alternative medicine: shark fins.

Between 1970 and 2005, some shark species’ populations have dropped 99 percent, in large part due to ”finning,” according to a report in the journal Science in 2007. Fishermen slice off the valuable fins (they can cost up to $300 a pound) and toss the sharks’ bodies back into the ocean. By tossing the shark – either alive or dead – the fishermen do not have to transport large, heavy carcasses, plus the price of shark meat is dramatically lower than that of the fin.

Shark fins are prized as a key  ingredient in costly shark-fin soup favored by the Chinese around the world.

The U.S. has had a shark-finning prohibition since 2000, but that law will be strengthened with the introduction of the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) last week. Rep. Madeline Bordallo of Guam has already introduced similar legislation in Congress, and that bill received unanimous approval.

The older law contained loopholes that at least one American ship took advantage of when they were discovered carrying the fins of about 30,000 sharks. They appealed on the basis that they were a “transport” ship, not a “fishing” vessel, a distinction specified in the earlier law’s language.

The new legislation will close that loophole, along with a ban on importing any shark products that come from countries without shark conservation efforts.

At the same time, the European Union is looking at similar measures to strengthen an existing EU ban on shark finning. One of the conservation act’s proponents, The Pew Environment Group, released a statement that the regulations, if approved, would be a concrete step to stop the slaughter of sharks.

Of the 591 shark and ray species examined by an international group of conservation scientists, 21 percent are “threatened with extinction” and 18 percent have “near-threatened” status, according to the Pew group. The difficult task of tracking so many shark species likely misses about 35 percent of the shark and ray population, researchers say.

One species, the dusky shark, has declined in population off America’s East Coast by more than 80 percent since the ‘70s, and will take about 400 years to rebuild, according to the Pew group.

Because sharks are slow to reproduce, the populations will not recover easily. A loss of sharks, the sea’s most storied predators, alters the delicate ecosystem of the world’s oceans by over-population of fish that would normally fall prey to sharks.

“Approximately 100 million sharks are being killed every year, with potentially enormous negative consequences for the global marine food chain. Every country that allows shark fishing will need to adopt strong conservation measures if sharks are to be saved,” said Joshua S. Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group.

The journal Science has numerous studies related to the world’s declining shark population.

For more information about how to eat seafood selectively, avoiding fish like shark that are endangered, see our story, How to shop for seafood.

(Photo credit: Whale shark (at top) and bags of shark fins (above) © 2009 The Shark Alliance.)

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